Abstract
International journalism (or foreign correspondence) is in stark contrast to conventional or domestic journalism practice. International journalism is not simply any form of journalism that involves nonresident news reporters, and neither should it refer solely to the coverage of global issues. It involves correspondents’ adaptability, interaction with, and interpretation of, another nation-state’s political economy, cultures and customs, actions, and ability to effectively communicate international affairs.
Kevin Williams candidly evaluates international journalism, observing that foreign correspondence has always been, and is now even more so, a complex profession. He provokes the idea that fast-changing developments in technology, geopolitical and social norms, and power dynamics make contemporary foreign correspondence a daunting task.
In the introduction, Williams deliberates why foreign correspondence seems to be on its deathbed, or at least existing in an inhospitable environment. He uses the first two chapters to provide insightful discursive accounts of the profession and global media. He examines the rapid rise of technology vis-a-vis the growing participation of ordinary citizens as newsgatherers and producers, and a sobering assessment of media consolidation and the sophistication of information control (or disinformation) by conglomerates, media owners, and news gatekeepers.
Williams focuses on technological, social, economic, cultural, and political changes that shape foreign correspondence. Throughout the six chapters, he illustrates how the cultural perspective of each reporter and parent organization plays an important role in the determination of how the news will be reported. Aspiring journalists, electronic social media contributors, and communication students with particular interest in foreign correspondence will value the inclusion of correspondents like Christine Amanpour and Ryszard Kapuściński as they address the current state of global reporting. Williams points out that many senior correspondents, like Kapuściński and Mark Tully, have blamed other correspondents for stereotyping the image of certain communities in the eyes of the western world.
In addition to the domination of news originating from national and supranational agencies, Williams looks at the increasing influence of ‘official’ news as the universal norm, in the context of increasing competition and time constraints, which binds foreign correspondents working in the field to accept ‘official’ news, in some cases without verification. Although Williams seems startled by the domination of the western perspective in global news, the book strongly drives home the point that, indeed, North American and European news dominates the global flow of information.
Williams underscores the shrinking economic resources for most companies involved in global media. Consolidation of news outlets into large agencies like AP, UPI, Agence France-Presse and news media conglomerates like News Corp, CNN, and Disney has been a major determinant in the way the news reaches the global audience. Such consolidation also drastically reduces the number of correspondents and gatekeepers and diminishes the variety of international affairs covered in the news. His well-conceptualized references capture the gist of this evolution in which international newsgathering has been significantly reshaped by social, economic, and technological conditions.
But one is tempted to ask whether the cases Williams presents in chapters 5 and 6 fully explicate issues such as new social orders guarding professionalism, fragmentation of the gatekeeping process, and the social complexity of global ‘netizens’ and their online content. It is my contention that those critical attributes of the degeneration of international news correspondence, for example, do not get the care they deserve.
Williams concedes that technology has tightened editors’ control over correspondents, and also that it has made correspondents more easily accountable to industry protocols. However, he questions the real, long-term impact of social media. He proffers that those who argue that social media and citizen journalists have rendered the foreign correspondent obsolete are carrying things too far. He reasons that citizen reporters cannot replace professional journalists because they do not have the expertise or journalism skills to provide news using ethical and professional techniques. In spite of Williams’s timely and essential work, this point is not as well articulated with empirical predictors as are the other sobering arguments he makes in this volume. Nonetheless, the lack of quantifiable data to support his claims is understandable, given that many of these technologies and usage trends are in their infancy.
The book uses apt, relevant research techniques and assumptions, backed by well-researched evidence, to construct a meaningful contribution to our understanding of international journalism today. For example, Williams does justice to the Third World with his examination of its global media coverage, which has been a point of contention among newsgathering agencies around the world. He explicates stereotypical patterns in which the Third World is reported, as well as the absence of global interest in this news.
Williams utilizes firm background knowledge in conceptualizing the problems and in-process transformations facing foreign correspondence today. And several propositions pertaining to framing, hegemony, cultural perspectives, and McLuhan’s theory of the global village are well conceived in this fast-paced volume.